


The Resurrection of Rose

by RobbyA



Category: Doctor Sleep (2019), Doctor Sleep - Stephen King, The Shining (1980), The Shining - Stephen King
Genre: Revenge, Sequel, Unofficial Sequel, doctor sleep, vengeance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-01-29 05:56:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 16,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21405298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobbyA/pseuds/RobbyA
Summary: Shortly after the events of Doctor Sleep, a group of True Knots acquire the remains of the infamous Rose the Hat. Upon reviving her, the one thing on Rose's mind is vengeance.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

“Are you sure this will work?” 

A group of six figures surrounded a bonfire. The leader produced a small urn from his hands. He watched the flames rage in an unfazed trance. He turned to answer his follower’s inquiry. 

“It will work. Don’t be fearful.” 

He sent for one of the members of the group to make the next move. The member’s hands timidly held a cannister. He looked at the cannister with sheer hunger, catching himself open it a few times. One of the more down-to-earth members smacked his hands, compelling him to pork it over. The leader held the cannister high in the air, his mouth salivating as well. He opened the cannister. A gas escaped it, filling the air. Most of the members sucked the strange gas into their mouths. The leader breathed into the cannister, filling his mouth with the gas before bending down on the ground, getting as close as he could to the flames as he could. Simultaneously, he took the urn and poured the ashes into the fire. The flames rose higher. He then slowly breathed out the gas onto the open fire. 

The flames danced around the leader. Before the group’s eyes, the flames took on a more feminine shape. A hand shot out from the fire and grabbed the leader. Whatever emerged from the flames was slowly choking the life out of the leader. His eyes became bloodshot, his breathing becoming hoarser. The woman raised him high in the air and planted a kiss on his lips. The man’s panic lessened as he allowed whatever the woman was to infiltrate his mouth. 

The remaining members grew confused. They too lowered their guards accepting that the notion was happening. It wasn’t until they saw that dust was piling up past the leader’s ankles. Their eyes widened as they saw that the leader was being sucked dry of the gas he was giving to the woman. More of his body crumbled like soggy cookies. He was still deeply enraptured by the woman’s kiss and continued it even when his face was receding, revealing his muscles and eye sockets. His body completely disintegrated when the last of the gas was robbed from him. The woman also hungrily sucked the steam coming from the pile of ash. 

The members recoiled with horror. The woman was now fully formed. She was a tall woman with long, black hair. Her eyes glowed as the gas she consumed caused her to rapidly cycle. She looked at the five members quizzically. The flames receded becoming small cinders. The woman was bereft of clothing. She walked towards the remaining members ignoring how they were grabbing sticks and stones to pelt her with after what they saw her do with their leader. She gave a slight smirk.

“You are the ones who brought me back from the brink of death?” 

She didn’t wait too long for an answer. The last thing that she recalled was that wretched little girl. Abra Stone. In all her long life, she had never seen a child shine as she did. That raw, untapped power. She never had so much difficulty with an intended victim. Her teeth clenched from remembering how she entered Abra’s mind and was caught off guard by her. Her fingers were horribly mangled. In all her life, her intended victim had hurt her. Badly. Whether it was her sheer hatred for the girl that kept her narrowly on the edge of life she didn’t care. The one line of thought spiraling in her mind was revenge. 

She was fuming in her inner thoughts almost not noticing one of the members speak up. “What do you want with us?” 

She collected her thoughts, glaring at the group. If looks could kill, that was the look of a woman immensely scorned. She was saturated with negative emotions further intimidating the group. “I am your new leader now.” 

There was silence by the remaining members. They looked at her with disgust as if they were offended by her declaration. One member, a large burly man with a thick, red beard and mustache, stood in defiance of the deranged woman. His forehead took up most of his face. “I don’t care if you were the prettiest True Knot we have,” he leaned in further to the woman, “we will not be ordered around by a crazy bitch like you.” 

The black-haired woman shrugged her elbows. “Do you all feel the same way?” 

Three of the True Knots raised their hands in agreement. What happened next was unprecedented. A surge of power ripped through their midsections at lightning speed. They immediately keeled over in pain, twitching on the ground, their lives flashing before their eyes. The power radiated from the black-haired woman who saved the burly man for last. She places her finger on the terrified man’s forehead and shot cleanly into his head. Brain matter splattered at the back of his head. With him painfully twitching on the ground, the woman turned her attention to the standing members. Two remained from her massacre. 

“Anyone else?” 

The two True Knots shared a look of concern that if they declined her demands they’d suffer the same fates. They effortlessly bend a knee to her in fright. The woman smiled at them, stroking their heads. She watched those who defied her crumble to dust, noticing that the two were hungrily glaring at the steam. If she were to collect more steam, she’d be powerful. Maybe more so than Abra already was. She knew that she needed to have time to recuperate, and probably make more recruitments. Luring just one child with the shining wouldn’t be enough. 

“My group was killed off” she finally explained “I need to find more True Knots out there.” 

One of the members stood up. It was a brown-haired girl in ragged clothing. She seemed to be roughly around the same age as the hated Abra. She had two discolored eyes, one hazel, the other blue. She had dark skin and a mess of black hair. From what she could tell, the girl didn’t have any semblance of a home prior to being recruited into her branch of the True Knots. 

“Ma’am, for more steam, we know of a man named Aldrich.” 

The woman raised an eyebrow. “Aldrich, is it?” 

The girl nodded. “He’s a big figure in the True Knots. I hear that he traffics hundreds of kids with the shine a day.” 

The woman became further intrigued. The other member, a rugged-looking man, regained his composure. “His operation is underground, though. Getting in will take some time.” 

The woman smirked. “It shouldn’t be a problem at all.” 

“My name is Lester, by the way, and the girl here is Scrappy Meg.” 

The woman shook her head with the new information handed to her. “Just call me Rose.”


	2. Abra

The True Knots were a race of quasi-immortal beings that may have appeared human enough, they were most assuredly not human. For whatever despicable reason, these creatures obtained their near immortality by hunting children endowed with strange, psychic abilities known by a seldom few as "The Shining." Rose's group would kidnap children and torture them to death, sucking their life force as "steam."

However, the process of selecting children who have the Shining was often tedious for most of the True Knot. They were plentiful at one point in time but now their numbers were greatly reduced. The children, simply put, no longer shined as strongly as they used to. Hence why when the shortage of steam arose, one man, Aldrich Gresley, began churning a profit. He was much like Grampa Flick, Aldrich was one of the oldest of the True Knot, his constant feeding on steam allowed him to see the fall of empires and civilizations. He was there to witness the rise of royal dynasties and some of the world's major events.

As a means of preserving what remained of the True Knot race, Aldrich resorted to mass trafficking of children with the Shining and selling them to those who were desperate. He enlisted several followers with the task of kidnapping children from their families – oftentimes whole families were wiped out to draw out the children. Most of the children began their lives as infants and while some were sucked dry of their steam, others were sold to the highest bidder and enslaved to them until they were eventually stripped of their steam.

Rose, Lester, and Scrappy Meg arrived at an abandoned factory in the middle of nowhere. Rose scanned her surroundings. It didn't take her much time to figure out that this was the place as the screams of countless children rang in her ears. They entered the building to see dozens of children crying in pain from various torture methods. Children hung from hooks that were driven into their backs. It was the equivalent to seeing meat suspended from hooks at a butcher shop. One of the children – a small boy no less than 5 – was getting repeatedly jabbed with a knife by one of the customers who greedily lapped at the steam emerging from his mouth.

At the front of the factory was a stand where Aldrich stood microphone in hand. He was a large mass of blubber. Clearly, his feeding on steam for untold years took a toll on him. He had a massive gut; rolls of fat laced his arms. His fingers were as plump as sausages that were topped off with long, gnarly fingernails. Aldrich possessed a triple chin and seemingly his neck was nonexistent. He was bald with a few strands of grey hair on his head. His eyes were yellow and sunken in. This was all topped with him wearing a black uniform, but because of his stature, the clothes were on the brink of ripping from the slightest of movements.

A row of three children was also on the stand. Their arms were tied up and they had tape around their mouths. Aldrich was overseeing an auction. The descriptions of the children with the Shining were yelled out over the microphone and the customers shoved and pushed at each other to get themselves onto the stage.

"500 going once, going twice," Aldrich yelled.

Rose walked around the factory, carelessly ripping her way through several of the children to take the steam for herself. Whenever one of the True Knots derided her for this? She used her dark magic to incinerate them. A third of the True Knots in the factory were senselessly slaughtered by her. The onslaught of the massacre interrupted the auction. Aldrich became enraged, dropping his microphone on the ground.

"Seize her!"

The guards of the factory stormed the scene. Unintimidated, Rose blasts the guards with bursts of dark energy, turning them into dust and helping herself to their steam. Scrappy Meg hid behind Lester when the deaths began to rack up. Aldrich, terrified, attempts to slip away during the desecration only to be caught by Rose. Snot rolled down Aldrich's face onto his chins. Tears were blinding his eyes. "Please, let me go."

Rose laughed at his pathetic demeanor. "You won't if you do what you're told."  
\----

Miles away from the factory, Abra was preparing for school. As she was getting her things together, a familiar voice entered her mind. "Good morning, Abra."

Abra looked around and saw Danny Torrance standing in the corner. She laughed to herself. She crossed her arms, looking slightly annoyed, but was nevertheless glad to see him. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

Danny smiled back at her. "I'm sorry. You just recently told me that more of the ghosts from the Overlook was giving you trouble."

Abra nodded. "Yeah, just recently those two twin girls were in my hallway saying some nonsense about playing with them." Abra shrugged her arms before continuing. "And then some weird man with a bear costume popped up in my Mom's room."

"Bear costume?" Danny asked, "I don't remember ever seeing that one."

They continued to speak about the week and how more of Abra's powers began manifesting. Her ability to communicate with others through the Shining became stronger as more children were showing signs of having that special gift. Abra also had the tendency with messing with the electrical currents often to her mother's chagrin. While her abilities became stronger, she couldn't help but think back to her encounter with Rose the Hat and the True Knots. Danny took notice of this.  
"Danny, do you remember when Rose said that she wasn't the only True Knot left?"

"Yes, I do." He responded.

"What if more True Knots are out there? Did Rose really die back at the Overlook?"

Danny pat her shoulder reassuringly. "I saw the life drain from her eyes when the spirits consumed her." He walked back towards the corner of the room. "She is dead, I can guarantee that."

Abra's mother called out for her to remind her that she was running late. Abra looked back at Danny only to see that he was gone. Disappointed by his sudden disappearance, Abra grabbed her bag and walked out the door.


	3. From Ashes to Life

It took some time, but Rose slowly gained total control of the human trafficking organization with Aldrich left on the wayside. Not that he had much to say on the matter. Rose hoarded the steam supply, deliberately starving several of the True Knots as a means of dividing the stronger from the weaker. She sent the strongest of the race to find and spirit away children after which, they were placed into a machine where tubes were attached to their orifices. 

The tubes were all attached to a large vat. When activated, it brought grisly pain to the children. The steam was pumped out of the children and added into the vat. Rose had overseen the construction of the devices as she rationalized that it would be more efficient than catching one child with the Shine. It was first performed on two twin girls who were found bending forks with their minds. There was kicking and screaming, but their steam was successfully extracted. By the end of the day, 12 canisters were filled with fresh steam.

Aldrich looked at the process being done with a mixture of astonishment and jealousy. It took him thousands of years to build up his empire, but now this woman who he had just met was killing his business. It was in his interest to not intervene given how she had singlehandedly massacred several of his customers. At the same time, he was becoming disgusted that she was staving steam from the other True Knots and deciding which ones were a better fit to obtain it. 

Within weeks, Rose had formed a small group of 30 True Knots she carefully selected. They had proven to be more adaptable than the ones that were close to death from malnourishment. Several were emaciated and falling over each other. They scrambled for the steam but were heavily punished for stealing canisters. Their only tasks were to place the children into the machines and were replaced if they were unable to further do their occupations. However, the worse was yet to come. 

One day, Rose gathered Aldrich and the others for a special event. There was a room in the abandoned factory that was air-tight sealed. Inside of the room was 30 of the True Knots that Rose carefully handpicked. Much like the witnesses, the group had no idea why Rose had made them go into the room. There was a silence for a few seconds before Rose came in. Lester held something in his hands that was covered by a cloth. Thoughts were aplenty as to what Rose was hiding.

“My fellow True Knots,” Rose said, “You may be wondering what I have hidden.” 

She motioned to Lester who lifts the object up. “I had been experimenting around with steam.” 

They looked at each other with odd glances. The idea that steam could be used for anything aside from consumption filled them with curiosity. Rose made a pass at Lester to toss the object into the room the 30 True Knots were in. The object falls onto the ground and rolls out from underneath the cloth. It was an orb. The crowd of True Knots stared at the orb with confusion. All the hype quickly morphed to an underwhelming event. 

“What was the purpose of this, Rose?” Aldrich finally asked in irritation.

She held up her finger, silencing him. “Take another look.” 

The True Knots locked away in the room were overcome with a surge of insanity. Their eyes shined a deep, crimson red. They had become like rabid dogs frothing at the mouth with their nerves pulsating rapidly through their skin. The room became irradiated with violence. Before the spectator’s eyes, the trapped True Knots turned on each other in a frenzy of punches and kicks. They bit into each other ripping out jugular veins and windpipes. They administered brut force, breaking bones, gouging each other’s eyes out. The room was heavily drenched with blood and guts. Throughout the burst of violence, the orb glowed an orange haze. Desecrated corpses littered the blood-filled floor. There was only one left. A girl that was covered with the blood. Her psychological episode subsided. Not fully understanding what had transpired, she looked around the room finding her fellow True Knots lying in piles of blood and organs on the floor.

“What…what have I done?” 

Outside of the sealed room, the True Knots reacted in bewilderment. Rose herself was unfazed having already predicted the outcome. She ordered Lester into the room to collect the orb and he placed the orb back under the cloth. Once this was done, she grabbed the orb and presented it to the surviving True Knots.

“I have been working for a good portion of my time with creating this orb. I’d like to call it the Orb of Madness.” 

She waited for the True Knots to regain some semblance of normalcy after their traumatizing experience before continuing to speak. “I had instilled this orb with pure, unadulterated steam.” She then takes her hat and places the orb inside of it. “My goal with this operation is to create an army of True Knots.” 

The orb was created as a means of making the True Knots she selected into becoming mindless killing machines that she would unleash on Abra’s town. The 30 True Knots that she trapped in the air-tight room were nothing more than guinea pigs. She enlisted Scrappy Meg with getting the surviving True Knot out of the room and presented her to the others. The girl was rambling nonsensically to herself, not even realizing that she was being watched by the others. 

“Rose, I’ve already allowed you to do whatever you wanted” yelled Aldrich “who made you God to kill my family like that?!” 

Rose wordlessly took off her hat and walked over to the man. Aldrich took a few steps back out of fear of what the woman was intending on doing with him. Rose followed suit and tapped the rim of her hat. 

“Guess what I have in my hat.” 

Aldrich shook his head. Rose became more agitated. “Look into my damn hat, fat man.” 

Aldrich took a slow gulp and leaned forward to stare into the contents of the hat. A loud blast echoed through the room. Aldrich gasped and walked backward. There was a huge gap in his forehead with his grey matter gushing from the hole in his forehead. He grunted like the pig he was and fell on the floor with a thud. Rose reached into her hat revealing a small pistol. She smirked to herself whilst delivering more blows to Aldrich’s body. The bullets penetrated through his walls of stomach fat, spilling his bowels. His body disintegrated into ash, but Rose continued to fill what remained of his body with bullets until she ran out. From there, she regained her sensibility, and turned to glare at the horrified customers. 

“Lester, I have a special task for you.” 

Three figures found themselves awakening on the floor in dazed confusion to their surroundings. They found themselves being stared down by the True Knots in the abandoned factory. Two were males, one was a female. Their names were Crow Daddy, Barry the Chunk, and Snakebite Andi. They were further taken aback. The last time they saw each other, Barry and Snakebite Andi both met their ends in the woods when Rose sent them out to collect Abra. Everything that happened afterward was a total blur. They could’ve sworn that there was major pain that they all went through before cycling out. But now they were here. 

“Hello, again.” 

They darted their eyes towards the sound of the compelling voice. It belonged to that same barefooted, Boho hat-wearing woman, Rose. They couldn’t believe it. At the same time, though, they sensed that there was something different. Something putrid reeking in the atmosphere. Rose looked at them with a scowl on her face. She had her head bent while simultaneously looking up beneath her eyebrows. Something about her was more tense. 

“Rose!” exclaimed Crow Daddy “I’m so happy to- “ 

Rose shot a beam of dark energy at his feet, nearly hitting him with it. He instinctively evaded the blast by hopping left of the blast. Barry and Snakebite Andi looked at Rose with shock. Rose looked at the charred ground her boyfriend previously stood on with resentment. She finally spoke up. 

“I’m going to state this upfront. I only brought you back for one purpose and one purpose only.” 

They looked at each other inquisitively. The realization that they were killed and were resurrected by Rose slowly sank in. But they also noticed that they were the only ones that were back. What of Walnut or Grampa Flick? Rose apparently read their minds because what next came out of her mouth made them even more confounded. 

“Do you really think I’d waste my time with bringing back those fools? You should count yourself lucky that I was barely able to cling onto a shard of my life and then bring you guys back. They will only weigh us down.” 

“B-but they’re family,” Crow Daddy stammered before getting attacked again by another blast. He immediately shut his mouth out of fear of getting on his girlfriend’s bad side again. Rose filled them in about how she was revived because of another clan of True Knots, introducing them to Lester and Scrappy Meg. She also explained the purpose behind their resurrections. 

“But what about the children?” Snakebite Andi asked, “what about collecting their steam?” 

Rose scoffed “Andi, this is no longer about collecting steam. This is not about living longer.” She stomped her foot on the ground before continuing “this is about one word only: Revenge.” 

“It’s just one girl, Rose” Barry rationalized, “we have more children we could feed on.” 

“No, you do not understand,” Rose said angrily, “that wretched girl is a fool that outsmarted me! I refuse to share a world with her. Her existence is like a nightmare.” 

From there, it was apparent that there was no amount of reasoning that could’ve possibly swayed Rose. She did not only want Abra to suffer, but she wanted the entire town completely obliterated in spite of the potential gains that they could’ve gained from harvesting steam from the town’s children. 

Crow Daddy extended his hand to his lover reassuringly. “Rose, that girl will not even live to see tomorrow.” 

Rose pried his hand off her shoulder in annoyance. “And didn’t that same girl cause you to die in a car accident?” 

“How was I supposed to know that man was helping her?” 

“You better watch your town with me, Mister Man, or I’ll make you regret the day you crawled out of your mother like a worm.” 

Barry cleared his throat to ease the tension. “Where is the girl going to be anyway?” 

Rose smiled. “She’s on a school bus right now as we speak.” She pointed accusingly at Barry. “I feel like you know what needs to be done.”


	4. Bus Crash

The bus came at around 6 AM. Abra said goodbye to her mother and entered the school bus. It was a day like any other. She sat by herself on the bus away from her fellow classmates oftentimes secretly entering their minds and listening to their innermost thoughts. Whether it was them subconsciously admitting to cheating on tests or contemplating coming clean to their crushes as to what they felt, it served as some entertainment no matter how little. At the same time, something felt different about that day.  
"Abra, I think something's wrong" a voice suddenly boomed out. Abra was violently ripped from her train of thought. She saw Danny sitting beside her on the bus. She was both elated to see him, but at the same time, she was annoyed that he entered her mind without her consent. But from the tone of his voice, this was very urgent.

"Uncle Dan, what are you doing here?" Abra asked "I can't talk right now; people are watching." She said this in a slight whisper while also motioning towards the others to emphasize the situation.  
"I'm sorry for barging in like that, Abra, but I felt some disturbance." He analyzed the school bus observantly. "There will be a disaster."  
Abra's eyebrow arched. "Where?"

Danny looked at her with a worried expression. "This bridge will be attacked. We don't have long, so- "  
An explosion rang out, the resulting soundwave shattering the windows of the school bus. The bus driver slammed down on the brakes to slow the bus down. The children were panicking as the teachers tried to calm them down. Many of the children were badly injured from the broken shards of glass. The worst was yet to come. A mammoth tremor shook the bridge, sending the bus backward. The bridge rattled; large, extensive cracks began to manifest. The lower level of the bridge was falling into the water below as large chunks of debris. Vehicles fell alongside the falling debris. The other cars turned the other direction rapidly to escape the destruction of the bridge.

A massive whirlpool sucked the vehicles down into the depths of the water. The bridge arched upward, pinning the students on their seats in their feeble attempts to avoid falling through the back. The whirlpool raged higher, now eroding the beams of the building. The teachers were now panicking themselves further complicating the matter.

"Was this the crash you talked about, Uncle Dan?" Abra asked. The bus skidded backward towards the massive rip in the bridge. The bus driver tried to slam on his breaks to no avail. The bus rapidly approached the hole in the bridge. The back of the bus leaned down into the hole. The crack widened leveling the bus. The vehicle was now suspended to its front wheels. The bus was stable for now...but any slight movement may spell the doom of all passengers. Abra hung to her seat, her grip slowly growing weaker.  
"Yes," Danny began, "use your powers to calm your classmates."

Abra was bewildered. "But this is everyone you're talking about!" Fear filled her voice. "I can't do it."

"Don't worry, I'll help you," Danny said. Together, they used their Shining abilities to telepathy communicate to them, easing their minds. Another succession of cracks rumbled sending the bus closer off the bridge. A deep chuckle bellowed out.  
"Still a hard one to kill, aren't ya?"

That was when they saw him. Barry the Chunk was levitating in the air, peering in through Abra's window. He made a few grabs for her which she responded by throwing several of her items from her backpack. Barry's patience was already wearing thin.  
"How is this possible?" Abra asked perplexed, "I saw you and the others die."

Barry chuckled again. "Let's just say that our hatred for you is what kept us kicking."

Barry used his telekinesis to lift the bus causing it to slide further towards the water. "Goodbye, girl."

Just when the bus nearly fell off, Abra mentally pushed him back, sending him flying to the back. Abra pushes the bus in reverse. Barry bounced back thoroughly enraged and pounces at her. The two were overcome with blows and brute force. Barry grabbed Abra with his hand and throttled her. Abra's eyes glowed from the feeling of the air slowly leaving her lungs. At the last minute, Abra bit down on his fingers drawing blood. He yelped in pain, releasing his grip of her.  
Abra raced off towards her screaming classmates. Barry angrily picks a boy up with his telekinesis, sending him flying towards the glassless window at the back. The boy screamed in horror. Barry turned to glare at Abra. "Either you do what I say, or this boy will be shark food."

Abra lowered her guard down, hands behind her back. Barry, his putrid smile spreading ear to ear, tosses the boy anyway. Before he could even get to savor the child murder, a surge of pain came upon on him. Red blood was leaking from his stomach, a piece of shard glass was on the floor painted with his blood. The boy he had thrown was now floating in the air. He looked back in shock, seeing that Abra was holding the boy up, but she also held her left hand out. She mentally grabbed the glass shard and it ricocheted at Barry, impaling him in the chest. He choked out blood. Steam was leaking out of his open wounds. He staggered a bit. He looked at Abra again with pure hatred.  
"You…you bi…."

He stammered some more, walking towards the end of the bus. His eyes rolled at the back of his head. He then stumbled off the bus and into the raging waters. The whirlpool died down preventing the beams from completely getting destroyed. Abra was able to hold the bus long enough to allow herself and the others to escape the bus. After everyone was safely off, Abra let go of the bus and watched it fall into the water. She was thoroughly exhausted.  
"Uncle Dan, how did he come back?" Abra asked after finally catching her breath.

Danny looked at the debris littering the waterway. "Something tells me that this won't be the end of it."

In the abandoned factory, Rose was angrily firing blasts of dark energy at the True Knots in an unprovoked rage. She nearly hit Crow Daddy and Snakebite Andi with the frenzy of blasts. "This is exactly what I was talking about!" The floor was charred from the continuous blasts.

"Rose, he tried his best," reasoned Crow Daddy, "could we at the least mourn him?"

Rose shot an ugly look at him. "He took this girl too lightly, and he suffered for it." Rose exhaled to calm herself down. "Can't you see why this is nothing to treat lightly?"

They knew that if they wanted to destroy that girl, they had to be united. Whether Snakebite Andi and Crow Daddy agreed or not, Barry the Chunk's display cost him dearly. They at the least could mourn his loss while Rose was preoccupied with concocting another scheme.


	5. Friends in High Places

“This is Channel One News here with the full coverage of the freakish bridge collapse.”

Abra watched the news quietly with her mother Lucy. The experience of nearly getting killed by a resurrected Barry had her on the edge, but she tried to save face in front of her worried mother. Why was he alive? She sensed him dying through the Shining. She felt every sensation right down to him gagging on his last breath. And yet against all odds, he was back in the flesh.

“It has just been announced that around ninety-nine citizens’ bodies were recovered in the wreckage. Anyone else is reported as missing or unaccounted for. Investigators say that they were most likely washed out to sea if they die upon impact.”  
Abra excused herself to her room and shut the door. She got onto her bed crossing her legs in a sitting position. She inhaled deeply before evicting the air in a sharp wheeze. She did this a few more times until her eyes shifted to the back of her head exposing the whiteness of her eyes. Her consciousness evacuated her body and phased through the wall of her room. Back downstairs, she saw her mother sitting down on the couch watching TV. There was a framed photograph of her father David.

Abra phased through the door and into the air. After soaking up all the beautiful sites, Abra sensed a strong case of The Shining. She winced in pain upon the realization that it was of dozens of children suffering. She drifted further away from the town before being repelled downward into the abandoned factory. What she saw was horrifying. Kids were being rounded up like cattle and getting slaughtered from the machines Rose the Hat installed. Steam emerged from their eyes, mouths, and other orifices and was collected into the gargantuan vats. The hollowed husks were immediately incinerated by a few of the True Knots. And there she was, standing high on a podium was Rose.

Rose had her trademarked hat with her, but there was something peculiar about it. The orb that she had personally crafted was integrated into her hat. She was overseeing a pack of True Knots that followed the direction of the orb as though they were the flock of sheep and Rose was their shepherd.

Their eyes were a deep shade of red, and they were twitching when they tried to stand still. Their movements felt artificial like they did not wish to move but were being forced to against their will. Rose pointed to one of her minions, giving them the “okay” to pump some of the steam out. The minion does as he’s told, and the group of True Knots kicked and pushed at each other to lap at the steam leaking from the vault.

Abra turned to leave before anyone noticed that she was “there,” only to become immobile. She was being held firmly in place. Her astral body was being contorted and twisted with ease. She fought back tears of pain when she saw Rose walking towards her. She had a smile on her face, but her eyes betrayed the actual feelings that she had at that moment.

“It’s been such a long time, girl.”

“Why are you alive?” demanded Abra “Uncle Dan and I saw the ghosts destroy you!” She was struggling against hated enemy’s clutches to no avail. Pain washed over her with every slight movement.

“You don’t have the faintest idea about how much I waited for this” Rose growled under her breath. Rose extended her arm and curled her fingers. Abra felt her arm’s muscles shift and press inward. What was happening to Abra’s astral body was being translated into her physical body. Her arms were stretched back in an inhumane fashion. Abra winced. At this rate, Rose would have not only dislocated her arms from the sockets but completely severed her arms from her body. Rose used her telekinesis to compel Abra closer to her. When she reached out to grab her throat, Abra at the last-minute slams her forehead against Rose’s stunning her.

Abra’s astral body came crashing down back into Abra’s body. Her arms still stung from the forced movements. Before she could completely comprehend what had happened, Lucy came barging into her room frantic.

“Baby, what’s wrong?! I heard you screaming!”

“Mom, I saw Rose.”

Lucy held her arms firmly at her sides. At a loss for what to do, Lucy tried the best to her ability to comfort her sobbing daughter. After a while, Abra contacted Danny to tell her about Rose’s operation and how she grabbed her astral body and was able to make her feel excruciating pain. She didn’t want to admit it, but it was true. After their previous encounter, Rose was becoming stronger. Undoubtedly because of the amount of steam that she was consuming. That also explained how Barry the Chunk was able to singlehandedly destroy a bridge and generate an earthquake and whirlpool.

Rose journeyed a long distance alongside her small group of True Knots. They traversed the Rocky Mountains in a car. They didn’t speak for a long time until Snakebite Andi decided to pop the bubble. “Where are we going, Rose?”  
Rose kept her eyes on the road not even giving Snakebite Andi the benefit of a few side glances. The snow was heavily falling, nearly blocking their sight. “Before I came back, I felt this great power.”

“Power?” inquired Crow Daddy.

“It was something that felt older. More eldritch.”

They arrived at the grounds that Rose told them about. It was of the Overlook Hotel. What was once a large building was now reduced to rubble and ashes. Rose unceremoniously walked into the ruins of the hotel, and her followers begrudgingly accompany her. Thick layers of ash were tossed up in the air. Snakebite Andi couldn’t help but feel that something was watching them with malicious intent. They scoped the area until they came upon a pile of charred black bones and a busted boiler. Rose bent down and picked up the skull.

“This most certainly belongs to that Danny boy.” She crushed the skull in her hand, turning it to ash. “My only regret was not meeting him when he was a boy. He could’ve been our personal cow that kept us fed for a long time.”

“Rose, what exactly are you planning here?” asked Crow Daddy.

“A simple fool,” Rose said in contempt, “this hotel is special.”

“What’s so special about it?” Scrappy Meg asked.

Rose smiled. “It’s alive. Can’t you feel it?”

Rose grabbed a canister that she brought along with her for their long trek. There was a low, rumbling noise and a colossal being made of the ashes and burnt material. It towered over Rose and her small group of True Knots. It had one eye in the center that eyed the group hungrily. It unlatched its jaws emitting a deep growl.

“Who dares to step foot on my cursed lands?” it choked out. Its voice filled the group sans Rose with dread. Rose was right. Whatever it was, it was leagues above them in sheer power. Tentacles made from thick ash and an oily substance were now oozing out of the creature’s back.

Rose stood firm on the ground in defiance. “This, my friends, is the Overlook Hotel.”

The others stood flabbergasted at what they were seeing before them. They were told through the Overlook itself of its long history and how it met its demise because of Danny Torrance, a boy that it tried to feed on due to his exquisite Shining ability. It only managed to not completely get destroyed due to latching a bit of itself onto Abra.

Rose took the cannister and opened it again. While she couldn’t see it for herself, she could tell that it was salivating. She blew the steam into the creature’s face, watching it react pleasurably. She smirked. “What if I told you there was a way that you can get so much steam, you’ll never go hungry again?”

The Overlook looked at her suspiciously. “What do I get out of assisting you?”

“You’ll be able to feed off Abra and a lifetime’s supply of children,” she explained.

The Overlook thought about it for a moment, weighing its options. It gave a wicked smile. “You have yourself a deal. But I must feed.”

Rose nodded her head. “Lester, approach me.”

Lester walked towards her. “What is it you wish of me?”

Rose pointed to the Overlook. “Dinnertime.”

Lester’s eyes widened in shock. Before he could react, the Overlook descended on him with its mouth agape. Wood and broken stairs were aligned in its mouth. It crashed down onto Lester, scooping him up in its mouth. Lester’s limp body hung in its mouth for a few minutes, blood glistening in its teeth before it made an audible swallowing sound.

“Lester, no!” screamed Scrappy Meg.

Rose bent down and gently stroked her chin. “Your friend’s sacrifice will serve us well in our pursuit of vengeance.”

“B-but- ”

Rose slapped Scrappy Meg across her face before leaning in closer. “Careful. One more uproar like that, and you’ll be joining your friend in there. Do you understand?”

With tear-dotted eyes, Scrappy Meg nodded her head in fear of the same befalling her. Rose smiled and pat her head before turning her attention back to the Overlook Hotel.  
“To start with our alliance, I want you to play a little game with our dear friend, Abra.”


	6. The Attack

The large mass of black darkness that was the Overlook latched itself onto one of the vats containing steam and began to absorb it. The True Knots on the ground watched with a mixture of shock and intimidation at the black sludge before them. It felt immensely old and primordial. It wielded an unprecedented amount of power, most certainly from all the steam it had consumed throughout its endless existence. It pulsated like a human's heart; the more steam it added to its mass, it increased in its capacity.  
Rose stood by the side on the podium, marveling at the sight. All that raw power and it was hers for the picking. One of the True Knots approached her with a worried expression.  
"Ma'am, I think something's wrong."

Rose turned her attention towards the True Knot. It was a spectacled man wearing a lab coat and brown pants. He also had two buckteeth. Rose sighed at the man, tapping her hand impatiently to emphasize that he was making her feel uncomfortable. He stopped in his tracks and breathed in a few times before exhaling.

"What is it?" she finally asked.

"Rose, something's wrong with your army." He pointed towards the army of True Knots. Blotches were all over their bodies. They had dry coughs; some broke out in high fevers. Many had difficulty seeing with their inflamed eyes. Some even began to disintegrate without much prompting. Rose raised an eyebrow at the display. She recognized the problem automatically.  
"Measles."

The True Knot wearing the lab coat nodded grimly. "Ma'am, we can't take the town in this condition."

Rose did not like the sound of that one bit. "I'm sorry, but I may have misheard you. Could you rephrase that for me?"  
"They're dwindling in number. At this rate, there would be no one left. We have to call off the attack and recuperate."

Rose smiled, reaching out and cupping the True Knot's cheek. He was surprised at first because he had believed that she would be enraged with him. That relief immediately gave way to horror when he felt a burning sensation on his cheek. Rose's reassuring smile transformed into a look of scorn. Before he even knew what was happening, Rose shot a flame through his cheek; fire erupted from the other side of his mouth in a small explosion. Teeth flew out of his mouth and his body crumbled into dust. She looked down at the pile of dust with disinterest.

"We are going ahead with the attack without any more hiccups."  
"But Rose didn't you just hear him, we have to – "

Rose activated the orb on her hat, sending three of the measles-stricken True Knots from her army to the dissenter. They came down on the True Knot like a flock of wild animals. They ripped into his body, flaying him alive. Their minds fought aggressively against the mind control, but their bodies continued to desecrate the man until he was reduced to ashes. Rose telepathically compels the True Knots to return to their position, threatening to inflict further punishments on the True Knots if they resisted her wishes.

One of the True Knots was unaccounted for. Outside of the factory was Scrappy Meg. She sat by a large rock, crying softly to herself. She remained that way until she heard someone walking out of the factory. She dried her eyes out of fear that it was Rose but was relieved to see that it was only Snakebite Andi. Snakebite Andi made it no secret that she was traumatized by what she had seen.

"Are you okay, Scrappy Meg?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine" Scrappy Meg said still drying her eyes. She knew that Snakebite Andi wouldn't fall for her claims judging by her hard stare. "Why did it have to be Lester?"

Snakebite Andi shook her head. "Rose said that it was for the best." She shook her head again. She was desperately wanting to hold onto the notion that Rose was being reasonable by her recent mannerisms, but after so much unneeded bloodshed – and how she prioritizes invading the town over the well-being of the True Knots – she was having second thoughts.

"I met Lester when I was in the streets," Scrappy Meg finally said, "I could bend spoons and other metals with my mind."

"So that's why you're called Scrappy Meg?" Snakebite Andi asked.

Scrappy Meg nodded her head in confirmation. "Our previous leader said that it would put them in a great advantage. Lester himself could sniff out other True Knots a mile away."  
Snakebite Andi sat down by Scrappy Meg, looking her over. "Why are you devoted to Rose?" Scrappy Meg asked. Snakebite Andi was taken aback by her words, but she did choke out that it was largely because she had no family prior as her father used to molest her every day for as long as she could remember. Scrappy Meg's eyes widened at the revelation.

"I'm sorry to hear that" said Scrappy Meg.

"Eh, it's something that happened years ago. I've moved past that."

They continued to talk for a couple of minutes before reentering the factory. Rose commanded the True Knots with the orb while tasking the Overlook with instilling some of its influence over the True Knots to delay the decaying of the True Knot army. They were in constant states of pain, repeatedly cycling in and out, falling apart only to be reassembled continuously. Rose stood high on the podium. As a result of hoarding most of the steam, Rose became one of the more powerful of the True Knots. With her newfound abilities, Rose opened dozens of portals to Abra's hometown.

"Go out and completely slaughter everything," Rose commanded, "take out all in your way!"

Legions of the True Knots entered the portals, some landing in random places around the town. The streets were washed in waves of violence. The True Knots vandalized cars and buildings. Innocent bystanders were ripped to shreds by the teeth and unbridled strength of the mad-stricken True Knots. Children were violently ripped away from their parents' hands and given the worst of the deaths, some that would be better off not disclosing. Fire spread in the streets swallowing chunks of the bystanders and True Knots in flames. The True Knots' Shining abilities were also enhanced. Some threw civilians around like ragdolls into buildings or spreading fire using their minds.

Rose looked at the rampant destruction with satisfaction. She saw the townsfolk get evaporated in different ways. In less than a few hours, the town would be nothing more than a lifeless husk. Much like how there was nothing at the beginning of time.  
Crow Daddy walked up to Rose. "Rose, the invasion is going off well."

"Of course, it is. I'm watching it, aren't I?"

"Mind if I ask why the Overlook," Crow Daddy asked, "what is the purpose behind it?"

Rose smirked in amusement as if pleased that he asked her that question. "You know why I hate that girl?"

"Because she stopped you the first time?" he asked bluntly.

"It is because she was the most powerful Shiner I have seen in my long life." She walked around the podium with her hands behind her back. "When that brat first bruised my hand when I entered her mind, I felt such raw power. Something that I never felt before."  
Rose held up three canisters while she continued to speak. "This one belonged to a 10-year-old girl. I kept her as a living battery for two months before she died. My favorite one was from another country. He was 5 at the time. He could lift spoons and other utensils in the air with his mind. He lasted a week. And this one was a 6-year-old and he only lasted a day."

She lovingly put the canisters away before turning back to her boyfriend. "But they were all powerless when it came to me. Abra…hurt me. She was hard to get."  
Crow Daddy became more concerned the further she danced around his question. "What does all that have to do with the Overlook Hotel?"

"It's simple," she began, "I will take it a step further and merge with the Overlook Hotel." She clutched her fingers together for dramatic effect. "And I will be the most powerful Shiner in the world."  
"You're insane, Rose!" remarked Crow Daddy, "all this because of a power play?"

He suddenly was kicked in his side by Rose. "Is that insolence that I'm hearing from your wretched mouth?"  
Crow Daddy whimpered from the pain. "No-no, dear."

"That's what I thought."

This is Channel One News," announced the anchorwoman. Chaos reigned outside of the studio making her remarks slightly inaudible. "Strange portals opened throughout the town and these…creatures emerged. They may look like us, but they have bizarre powers."

The news conveyed more of the string of violence. Some of the True Knots were even seen crawling up the windows of the news station, shattering the glass and sending the shards falling onto civilians. "The national guard is expected to…no, no, wait! No, please!"  
The intermission was cut off, resulting in heavy static being played over.


	7. Corruption

Abra was in her room, watching the terror the True Knots befall her hometown. The casualties were piling up on both opposing sides with no end in sight. She was sprawled on her bed, looking up absentmindedly at the ceiling. Her mother was in the living room and had remained there since the announcement was made. Abra had learned a trick from Danny on how to hide her Shining and it successfully kept any of the brainwashed True Knots from infiltrating her house. Hers was a more exceptional version of the one Danny used to do when he tried to block out the memories of the Overlook Hotel.  
The stress of having to hid slowly ate away at Abra's mind. Abra struggled to regain consciousness, but the call of the unconscious mind was too strong. Her eyes became heavy as she let go. A tiny voice stirred her awake.  
"Hello, Abra."

Abra woke up with a jolt. She saw two dark fingers standing at the foot of her bed. Abra squinted her eyes and saw that she was staring at two young girls. Both girls wore matching blue outfits with white laces. Their hair was stylized to resemble the other. Blood was splattered all over the front of their dresses, suggesting that they both met with grisly ends. They were holding hands presumably as a show of affection. Across their faces was a wide smile. Their eyes were bereft of pupils, only the whiteness of their sclera. A black substance leaked from their eyes, yet they were still smiling.  
"You again?! Abra screamed. As if on cue, Abra grabs her RWBY figurines with her mind and held them in front of her in a threatening manner. It did not deter the two girls. Instead, they had wild looks in their eyes. One of sheer hunger.  
"She was right when she said you had the strongest Shining." They spoke in a creepy unison further freaking Abra out.  
"Who?" Abra asked, her curiosity peaked. It was undoubtedly her hated enemy Rose the Hat.  
Abra stopped, sensing that there was more than one presence in the room. A well-groomed man appeared before the young girl alongside a man whose head was split open and holding a wine glass in his hand.  
"Great party isn't it!?" the man screamed.  
More spirits manifested in the room, each one with crazed looks of hunger. Abra crouched up on her bed fear filling her heart. Her psychic grip on her figurines waned, causing them to fall onto the floor. The force in the room was unmeasurable. Whatever it was, it was more powerful than she could hope to be, even if later in life she tapped more into her hidden potential. She leaned back screaming at the top of her lungs.  
"Uncle Dan!"

She was overcome with the spirits of the Overlook Hotel bombarding her. They were deathly cold and no attempt at mimicking of the human body would suffice. They were human only in appearance. They crawled underneath her skin, robbing her of her senses.  
Downstairs, Lucy was busily preparing dinner. She was aiming at going to the grocery store earlier that day, but it was hectic getting home with the sudden attack of those vampiric beings. Thankfully, she thought to stock up on emergency rations and broke them out for the occasion. A rustling from upstairs drowned out her concentration.  
"Abra?"  
She turned the oven off and ran towards her bedroom. The door was closed. Lucy stood by the door and pressed her ear against the door frame. More movement was emanating from the room. Lucy tentatively knocked on the door. The rustling ceased.  
"Abra?"  
The door flew off its frame sending Lucy plummeting down the stairs. She moaned in pain, feeling that her right arm and leg became dislocated in the fall. Her nose was bruised and bleeding. She tried to regain her composure when her daughter levitated down the stairs. Her left eye was clouded.  
"Abra, what's wrong," Lucy asked. Abra didn't respond. Pure hatred was in the air. That was not her daughter. It was the embodiment of what man could perceive as pure, unsaturated evil. She had become completely possessed by the Overlook Hotel.

Lucy got up and began limping towards the living room. Abra ricocheted at her in a burst of lightning speed. She pounces on her mother nearly fracturing all the bones in her body. She flew towards the ceiling, her mother cradled in her hands. Blood was pouring out of open wounds.  
"Abra, please," Lucy begged. She clutched her daughter's cheek in the effort. However, Abra lets go of her watching her fall to the ground with a splat. Without much explanation, a headache manifested as though her mind was being split in two. She took hold of her pulsating temples, grinding her teeth to ease the pain. Great power was cast out of her mind. In her split glance, she saw a smoky mist. It was ancient and awe-inspiring in how powerful it was. It was a massive, indescribable entity that was vast as it was mysterious. Abra collapsed on the floor, fracturing her leg.  
She woke up not too long afterward still feeling a lingering pain in her head. Thoughts about what happened prior sluggishly returned to her mind. Twin girls. Men in uniforms. She was knowledgeable of the girls and at least the naked woman because Danny taught her how to mentally lock her away. She locked the girls away as well, but now these other ghosts are after her. Her leg stung when she shuffled upward. From that height, she was lucky enough to narrowly avoid injuring herself more. Something broke her fall.  
She looked down and saw her crumpled mother's corpse underneath. Her eyes widened like saucer plates.  
"Mom, no…."

Another voice penetrated her consciousness. "Wakey, wakey, sleepyhead!"  
She knew that voice well. She clutched her wrists until they turned red. Rose.  
Rose was sitting down in a chair, relishing the hatred Abra had for her. She was also looking at several portals at the leveling of the town. Snakebite Andi, Crow Daddy, and Scrappy Meg were also glancing at the destruction with looks of discomfort.  
"Rose, I swear that when I get my hands on you!" Abra growled. Her leg still pained her.  
Rose stifled a laugh. The resolve of the girl was adorable – and dare she thought – admirable? "I'm sure you've seen my handiwork with the town?"  
Abra was further incensed. "That was your doing? How?"

Rose tapped the orb on her hat. "I enchanted an orb with pure steam. It made controlling all the rampaging, berserk True Knots easy. I have also enlisted a little friend that your Uncle Dan is already acquainted with. Someone who latched themselves into your subconscious mind like a parasite."  
She thought back to the Overlook Hotel and how she stood there, waiting desperately for Danny to escape the flames of the establishment, but he never did. Instead, he was swallowed by the flames that were created because of the overloading of the Hotel's boiler. As she waited outside, she sensed darkness shrieking in agony, the realization of its impending death filled it with fright. That was when the Overlook attached a fragment of itself within her.  
"But my main reason for entering your mind is because I am having a little…coronation" Rose explained.  
"Where are you getting at?" Abra inquired clearly unamused.  
"This night, I will become the most powerful Shiner in all existence." She laughed maniacally almost as though she heard something incredibly hilarious. "After I had placed myself to the highest level of power, I am going to wreak nightmares all over the land until everything rots underneath my feet. Don't worry. I'll save you for last."  
With that, Rose ended the psychic discussion. Abra felt a great weight on her shoulders. She looked at her mother's corpse again slowly coming to terms with the events that had transpired.

Rose left the room to prepare for her upcoming encounter with Abra, leaving Crow Daddy, Snakebite Andi, and Scrappy Meg alone to watch over the rampaging True Knots. They became more repulsed in every passing moment. They ensured that Rose was absent within the hearing range and huddled together in a strained circle.  
"We need to do something about Rose," Snakebite Andi said fearfully, "she's gone too far."  
"She kept us alive for this long, what if she were to suddenly decide that we were no longer needed?" Scrappy Meg remarked.  
They needed to think fast. Rose said that she was going to destroy other towns after she had destroyed Abra. That would potentially include other True Knot clans that she would carelessly mow down in her pointless campaign of eradicating everything...regardless if Abra was dead or not. After some considerable debating, Crow Daddy came to a conclusion. He felt bile build up within him because it would come at the risk of getting killed a second time, this time by his insane girlfriend, but something had to be done.  
"We have to help that girl."  
Snakebite Andi raised her eyebrows. "She was that brat that killed you, wasn't she?"  
"It's a long story, but you do not understand how powerful her Shining really is," Crow Daddy explained. "We have to keep her alive long enough to assist her in taking Rose down."  
"She's really changed that much, hadn't she?" Scrappy Meg asked absentmindedly not realizing how accurate her observations were.  
Crow Daddy frowned in confirmation. He gazed through the portals to find a way to Abra's house after remembering that the Overlook Hotel passed through one of them as a means of getting Abra to kill her own mother. There was one that featured the front door of her house. He gulped nervously out of paranoia that Rose would reenter the room to see what he was doing. He needed to act fast. He stared at the two girls with a forlorn look. At a certain angle, you wouldn't be foolish to not see some wetness around his eyes.  
"If something happens to me, do whatever you can to keep Rose from entering this portal."

The girls gave him a brief hug for good luck, and he jumped through it. Abra was still depressed about being responsible for her mother's death. Even if she was possessed at the time, it didn't make matters any better for her. Danny reappeared again, sitting on the couch. Abra didn't dare to stare at him.  
"You know you aren't at fault for what happened?" he finally said in an equally crestfallen tone "no one is."  
"Leave me alone, Uncle Dan," Abra said still refusing to look at him.  
He nodded his head. "The Overlook was always a powerful force that loved to twist the love that families had for one another and destroy entire families from the inside out." He smiled before continuing. "I was caught by it as well, but do you know what stopped me?"  
"What was it?" Abra asked, finally giving him a passing look.  
"It was because I thought of you. I know this sounds odd, but you were always the child that I never thought of having."  
Abra was confused, but she continued to listen quietly. True, while David was her father biologically, Danny was the one who helped her to accept her Shining and served as her adviser. It was nothing too dissimilar to how Dick Hallorann helped him to come to terms with his abilities and told him that he would be helping someone else with the shared powers. The old man was right after all. He wasn't his biological father, but he did mentor him like one. That was more than he could attest to for his alcoholic father Jack.  
Danny talked about his mother and her efforts of protecting him when the Overlook completely possessed her husband. How she too was made aware of the supernatural horrors that were the Hotel. And yet despite only having a knife, which was like taking a knife to a gunfight with the ax Jack wielded being the gun, she did whatever she could to save him. And she provided him with emotional stability. Abra gradually felt better. It still hurt that both of her parents were now deceased, but Danny filled her with confidence. So much so, she was convinced that she could destroy Rose with her own hands.  
"Someone will arrive to assist you in your mission," Danny said cryptically before disappearing again. Abra was perplexed by the ominousness of his words. Anyone that she knew that would help her in this situation was dead. Billy? Coerced into killing himself by Snakebite Andi. Her father. Dead, all because of Rose. Who could assist her? As she allowed her mind to weigh the possibilities, she got a knock on the door. It must be them now, she thought. She walked to the door and to her shock and anger, Crow Daddy was on the other side. Hatred was rising within Abra again. Crow Daddy also had some hesitations with what he was about to do, but Rose might already know he was gonbe by now. He breathed heavily to slowly process the dilemma and let it simmer.  
"We need to talk."


	8. Teleport

Abra crossed her arms upon seeing the tall figure before her. "There is no way that I am ever helping you."

Crow Daddy tried his hardest to not give into anger. She had a point: after their first encounter with each other, he couldn't promise that he wouldn't betray her during their mission and suck her dry of her steam. But he was already at a point of urgency: his former girlfriend intended to destroy everything and if they don't act fast, she'll undoubtedly gorge herself on more of the steam at the factory. Enough to level the rest of the United States, maybe the continent itself.

"Look, I understand that you can't trust me, but this is bigger than both of us combined."

"You killed my Dad! You are lucky that I didn't rip your head off as we speak."

Crow Daddy rolled his eyes. "You have no idea how many people I killed and that I get this all the time." As he was finishing his statement, he could see Abra lifting blunt objects with her mind. She hadn't killed him yet; it was best that he does not anger her any further. As a True Knot, he saw humans like how one would see any animal: as cattle. These humans – "rubes" – were at the bottom of the food chain. They at least were fortunate enough to have been bestowed by such a gift as the "Shining." When the True Knot first formed, they discovered the pleasures of harvesting children of their life forces and instilling that life force into themselves, absorbing the years the child would've had.  
"If we do nothing, Rose will wipe out more human lives." Ignoring his ulterior motivations, this seemed to work. Abra let her arms fall to her side in a state of deep thought. She sighed heavily.  
"Alright, I guess I have no other choice."

Danny manifested into the room, startling Crow Daddy. "We don't have much time."

"So, you died too?" Crow Daddy asked "I was cheated of my chance of killing you to avenge my- "

Danny telepathically tossed a lamp on Crow Daddy's head. It shattered, cutting into Crow Daddy's scalp. He writhed in pain. Abra laughed in amusement.  
"I hate humans," muttered Crow Daddy.

The three quietly opened the front door, looking outside. There were a few mindless True Knots running amok, gnawing on each other or on the body parts of their victims in mad spells. Their eyes were bloodshot red with their nerves bulging out through their papery skin.

"Something's wrong," Crow Daddy said. He observed the True Knots rapidly cycling in and out. Each transition, they evaporated into ashes only to reassemble. Each time, they looked less humanoid in appearance. Their bodies were being crudely recreated with little rhyme nor reason.

"This had to be Rose's doing" Abra theorized.

"It was that stupid hotel's fault," Crow Daddy said in deep mourning for his fellow True Knots' plight.

"The Overlook Hotel?" Danny asked. He was staring intensely at Crow Daddy. Intimidated, Crow Daddy rambled his response in his mind.

"Rose took us to this weird hotel in the Rocky Mountains. It was burned to the ground. I had no idea what Rose saw in the hotel – something about sensing an evil presence within it indefinitely old and powerful. And there was this…black sludge thing that surfaced from the rubbish when Rose breathed steam on it. She…woke something up and is now planning on merging with it."

Abra was confounded by the bizarre juxtaposition. Danny's glance remained on Crow Daddy. He felt the Overlook dying after he set it ablaze. Abra sensed it too. How could Rose have possibly gotten the spirit of the Overlook Hotel ringed into her scheme?  
"The Overlook took me over and made me kill my Mom," Abra said, "it somehow got attached to me after Uncle Dan destroyed its physical body."

"Where is Rose now?" Danny asked, more incensed.

"She found an abandoned factory a few miles from this town in a barren wasteland" Crow Daddy explained.

"How can we even get there?" Abra pondered aloud.

"By using your Shining, girl," Crow Daddy answered.

Abra looked at him, her curiosity peaked. "What?"

Crow Daddy bent down, staring directly in her eyes. "Rose always said you had the most powerful form of the Shining, and all that earlier showed you weren't even using a fraction of your full power."

Abra rubbed her chin. A fraction of her power? Sure, she did have early signs of the Shining such as when she predicted the 9/11 terrorist attacks when she was a young girl, or when she did her "spoons trick" to get a reaction from her parents, and she was powerful enough to form a mental connection with Danny, especially when she sent him a message pertaining to Bradley's murder, but teleportation was an entirely different field.

"Well, how am I gonna do that?"

"With this." Crow Daddy pillaged through his clothes, pulling out an empty canister. One of the many that Rose had already used. "This was manufactured by her. Close your eyes and touch it."

Abra did not want to at first because it represented just one of the many children that were stolen and killed for their life forces. That, and there was no way she could take Crow Daddy's word for it lest he attempted to do something funny.

"Do it, Abra," Danny finally said.

"But, Uncle Dan – "

"If he does anything funny at all, I will roast his ass without thinking twice."

With that reassurance, Abra breathed in and exhaled deeply, groping the canister in Crow Daddy's hand. Screams filled her mind, undoubtedly of the many children who were tortured and harvested. She saw the children getting strapped to the machines that drew out the steam from their orifices. Bodies getting buried and burnt. The True Knots that were denied steam having to work in malnourished conditions with getting rid of the husks.

"Now, girl," Crow Daddy said, "think hardly on everything that you are feeling."

"I can't!" screamed Abra "it's hard!"

"You can do it, Abra," Danny said, "think of Bradley."

Abra grit her teeth her eyes still closed. She thought harder with as much hatred that she could muster for Rose and the other True Knots. The air around the three started to crystallize around them. The air particles became charged, and emitted a surge of lightning engulfing them. Abra opened her eyes seeing that they were traveling through a wormhole at lightning speed.

"This looks…weird," Abra said. She looked at Crow Daddy shambling in place unable to stand still in one place while Danny floated. The wormhole opened to a lifeless area, devoid of animals and vegetation aside from a few strands of grass. Crow Daddy and Abra fell headfirst into the soil. Danny floated over to them, with a slight bit of amusement on his face.

"Don't start," Crow Daddy groaned, spitting grass from his mouth.

They were there: the factory. Outside of the factory, three True Knots guarded the entrance to the factory. They were arguably healthier than the ones that Rose sent to ransack the town. They were physically better built-in stature. Abra and Danny sensed that they were more powerful than Rose's original clan. They most likely received half of the supply of steam that Rose had hoarded for herself. They hid behind a wad of dead grass.

"How are we going to get past them?" Abra asked.

"I have an idea" Crow Daddy said. He explained the plan to the two, and they set the stage not too long afterward. Crow Daddy walked towards the entrance with Abra's hands tied to her back. Danny didn't really have much to do aside from floating along.

"Who goes there?" one of the guards asked. He was around an inch taller than Crow Daddy. Crow Daddy was slightly intimidated but kept his mask of security.

"I have the girl."

They saw Abra and her restraints and they looked at each other for a long period of time. They shrugged and moved aside. Crow Daddy walked into the door with the collected prisoner. The True Knot guards noticed Danny's ghost. Before they could react, Danny phased through the building's walls. They shared a confused gaze.

"Shouldn't have had that steam from that kid with a major imagination."

Snakebite Andi's arms were tied to a table's leg, her belly and ribcage were exposed. She was screaming incessantly. On top of her was Rose. She ignored the young girl's screaming for mercy, and further pressed a branding iron into her bare skin. Scrappy Meg was being held back by two True Knots and forced to watch Snakebite Andi's punishment. She went through throes.

"For the last time, tell me what you know about Crow Daddy's disappearance" Rose hissed.

"No." Snakebite Andi shouted. In response, Rose pressed the branding iron deeper on Snakebite Andi's stomach, making a new wave of pain go over her."

"Rose! Please let her go!" Scrappy Meg cried, ugly tears rolling down her eyes.

Rose looked at her with scorn. "One more quip from you, and you'll be joining her!"

Scrappy Meg ceased her complaints. Rose raised the hand holding the branding iron in the air, intent on slamming it hardly over Snakebite Andi. "I will get an answer from you, even if I have to dismember you to get it."

"Rose!"

Rose turned around and saw Crow Daddy with Abra and Danny. She looked him over in suspicion.

"You brought the girl?" she said finally.

"Yes, yes. Just please let Snakebite Andi go and you can do whatever you want to this little brat."

Rose rolled her eyes, ordering two of her True Knot guards to untie her. Snakebite Andi could hardly move due to the searing pain in her torso.

"You're finally mine, little girl," laughed Rose. She began to fire a ball of dark energy between her hands. "Tis a pity; you would've made a great True Knot."

Suddenly, a fluorescent light beam fell from the ceiling and broke over Rose's head. Blood was seeping from her forehead. Her teeth gritted in anger.

"What the!?"

Abra then unties herself using her telepathy and darts forward. Rose orders her minions to slow her down. Four True Knots ran forwards to tackle her. Abra levitated off the floor in the nick of time, causing them to crash into each other.

"You fool!" screeched Rose. She sent more True Knots into the room, overwhelming the girl. Crow Daddy jumped forward and tackled one of them to the ground, beating one senseless. He picked up a few of them with his mind and threw them across the room. Danny jumped into the bodies of some of the True Knots and caused them to attack each other. The True Knots had knives and other small weapons that they bludgeoned each other with.

"Hey!" Crow Daddy yelled. Danny shrugged his shoulders.

"Sorry, got a little carried away there."

Rose was now foaming at the mouth in pure anger. She touched her orb, compelling more of the True Knots into the room in a mad frenzy. Twenty erupted into the room, grabbing Crow Daddy and began to relentlessly beat him. Abra was holding off several with her mind, but she could not hold them for long. Rose laughed, believing now it was truly over for her.

"Kill yourselves."

The hoard of True Knots overpowering Abra suddenly grabbed ahold of their necks and snapped them in quick succession. Their bodies dropped onto the cold floor like flies before turning to ashes. Rose's eyes widened in shock.  
"A pusher?" she said startled "but the only pusher we have is…"

Snakebite Andi. She was standing firmly when she ordered Rose's men into mass suicide. She blasted a dark energy ball at Snakebite Andi. It came within arms' length of hitting Snakebite Andi directly in the face if not for Scrappy Meg intercepting it by ripping off a piece of one of the machines Rose created. The blast shot back at Rose, squaring her in the face. The dust cleared, revealing that the blast took out half of Rose's face, revealing her facial muscles and nerves. It also destroyed her mind-controlling orb.  
Crow Daddy ran over to her when he saw Rose collapse onto the ground. Even after everything she had done, Crow Daddy couldn't bring himself to despise her. Regardless of how many lives she had snuffed out.

"Crow Daddy wait!" screamed Abra.

Rose looked at her boyfriend in surprise. "Why are you doing this?"

Crow Daddy looked at her, tears streaking down his cheeks. "You've changed, my love. You allowed yourself to get consumed by so much hatred." He surveyed the room. "All these pointless deaths. Please, let us go back to how things were."

Rose looked at him for a short second. She tried to smile despite half her face being missing. "Oh, Crow Daddy."

He leaned in for a kiss. They hadn't had a chance to kiss each other since they were revived. Now was the most opportune time to do so as the first step of rekindling their relationship. Crow Daddy closed his eyes, anticipating feeling his lips pressed against his lover's.

Stab.

Nerve-wracking pain. Pain running deep in his chest. Crow Daddy looked down, seeing that Rose had deeply planted a knife in his chest, stabbing his heart. He coughed up blood, staining his teeth. Rose pushes him off herself without much hesitation. "Always a fool in life and in death."

Scrappy Meg and Snakebite Andi ran to his side while Rose stood in the center of the factory, back on her high podium. Black sludge dripped from the ceiling, encircling Rose. She had a smile across her face, or what was left of it.

"Now, ladies, and gentlemen, bratty girl and ghost boy, the event you all have been waiting for!"

The Overlook Hotel seeped through the cracks of the ceiling and landed on Rose in a huge wad. The entity grumbled and shook violently. Like a volcano, the Overlook exploded skyward in a large beam of darkness. It broke through the roof of the factory, sending debris raining down, forcing the others to shield themselves. It then grew large arms the size of planes topped with five sharpened claws. It took on a feminine physique upon assimilating with Rose, developing mammoth, glowing pale blue eyes. A laugh rang out.  
"I am now the most powerful Shiner in the world!" Rose bragged. "I can take over any city or country I want…if not for one bump."

She pointed her massive finger towards Abra. "The Overlook had informed me of how we lived in a larger universe, a multiverse if you will. I used my newfound powers to peer into the other worlds, and in each one, you always bested me."

The ground shook severely sending more debris falling on the gang. Rose smirked. "I cannot live in a world where you – or that accursed ghost man – live. So now, I am going to use all my power to destroy every universe. I will relish in hunting you down and killing you over and over again until every world is void of life."


	9. Rose Vs Abra

The ceiling caved in, not too long after, the entire factory collapsed. Scrappy Meg managed to create a barrier from the scraps of metal, creating a metallic coating. It shielded Abra, herself, Snakebite Andi, and a dying Crow Daddy. The remaining minions of Rose were crushed to death from the debris. Rose stood tall, creating a black hole between her massive hands.  
"What is she doing now!?" screamed Snakebite Andi.  
"She's creating a black hole," said Danny, "I feel that she extracted all of the steam in this factory to do it. If we don't do anything about the black hole, it will not only destroy our universe, but I fear that it may consume all worlds."  
The ground shook violently the more the black hole grew. The blackhole increased in mass from sucking the debris of the facility into it to feed itself. The black wall of darkness became as large as a skyscraper picking up on speed. The world outside of the increasing mass remained relatively the same but from within, the objects and debris sucked into it stretched and contorted. A spaghettification effect.  
"What are we going to do now?" Scrappy Meg asked. Snakebite Andi and the others looked at the widening black hole in fright. Abra scanned the area looking for some inspiration. She then stared at the mad Rose towering over the location of the former factory. An idea formed in her mind.  
"If we get Rose sucked into the black hole, do you think that would seal the black hole?"  
The others stared at Abra in surprise. "Are you insane?" asked Snakebite Andi.  
"What other choice do we have?" Abra inquired.  
"That…could possibly work," noted Danny, "but we need to find a way to do so without getting sucked into the black hole ourselves."  
"We have to make a plan," Scrappy Meg pointed out. They conspired with each other for a short minute. Rose observed their discussions with curiosity but also laughed it off as being hopeless as far as she was concerned. The meeting broke. Scrappy Meg and Abra sprinted towards Rose. Rose clenched her teeth in delight.

"Bravery won't save you!" she screamed firing several blasts of dark energy at them. Scrappy Meg shielded Abra with a sheet of metal. Enraged, Rose lifted her mighty arm, towering the two girls with it. She slammed it down, kicking up dust. The dust subsided; Rose scanned her surroundings seeing how she was now alone. And not just alone, but she was now back in the same snow maze that she experienced when she followed Abra and Danny to the Overlook Hotel months ago. She chuckled deeply.  
"This same trick again, girl? It's not going to work this time."  
Sure enough, Rose could hear the small crunching of the snow underneath a pair of snowshoes. She darted for the direction of the sounds. She was so gargantuan in size and stature; she was reduced to sprinting on her hands and knees like a puma getting ready to pounce. More crunching of the snow; more running forward aimlessly. It felt like hours for Rose.  
"Wait, I passed that trail for the hundredth time today."  
She ceased her running to formulate her next course of action. Flames erupted into the snow maze, burning off Rose's right arm. It fell with a loud thud on the snowy ground. Rose grabbed the stub of her former arm in pain.  
"Come out and face me, brat!" she yelled. Her voice sent icicles falling from the top of the maze. Abra arrived, levitating and flames emerging from her hands. Rose became more enraged.  
"Now you have the power over flames!?" she screeched. Abra didn't respond instead of turning around and blasting in the opposite direction. Rose's assimilated back onto her body. With her eyes blazing a deep shade of yellow, she roared, breaking her way through several of the maze's walls. Abra attempted to doge each maze as it fell; sensing her movement, Rose broke through the last maze, swatting Abra to the ground like a fly. Abra plummeted to the ground. Rose loomed over her with a taunting expression on her face.  
"This is the end of the line, little girl," Rose smirked.  
"You'll never get away with this you bitch!" Abra screamed.  
Rose's razor-sharp teeth, made from components of the Overlook estate, smirked. "I am already the most powerful being in existence, but I can use your powers to speed up your world's death!"

Abra screamed when Rose's massive hand scooped her up in her grasp. It felt slimy to the touch with ooze seeping through Abra's clothes. Tiny hands grew from the host hand, encircling Abra. Abra struggled against the grips of the demonic hands, but they held her tightly, pushing her down into the palm of the host hand. Abra let out one final scream before getting absorbed into the hand. The illusion gets broken, bringing Rose back to the wasteland.  
"Who will try to stop me now?" she gloated.  
Snakebite Andi raced at the large monster that was formerly her boss in a blind fury. She jumped in an attempt of delivering a blow to her large hand. Instead, Rose's hand collided with her, and she was met with what felt like a pillowcase of 200 tons of bricks. She slammed hard on the ground, rendering her unconscious.  
"Snakebite Andi!" Scrappy Meg shouted. Rose raised her large foot over Scrappy Meg and Crow Daddy. She restrained herself a bit to intimidate her enemies. The foot came down hard, breaking the sound barrier. Snakebite Andi tried to manipulate more metal beams but was powerless against the behemoth. Before the foot made touch down, Crow Daddy used his Shining to lift Scrappy Meg into the air and tosses her across the wasteland and next to Snakebite Andi.  
"Crow Daddy!" she yelled.  
The foot slammed down on the ground, immediately killing Crow Daddy. Rose laughed maniacally from her boyfriend's sacrifice. "Pity that in his final efforts, he failed to protect either of you too."  
Within Rose, Abra was tossed around aimlessly in total darkness. She never knew what it was like to be claustrophobic, but after her entrapment at the hands of Rose, she sympathized with those people who had that fear. She was swimming in a sea of the same, babylike hands. They were persistent in pushing her further down. Abra sighed regrettably. She was now trapped deeply within Rose and by extension the Overlook Hotel itself. It didn't matter anymore. As far as she was concerned, the world outside of her had already been neutralized by the black hole. Everyone that she knew would most assuredly be dead by now. Tears rolled down her eyes the more she came to terms with her fate.  
"Hello?"

Abra opened her eyes, suddenly darting her eyes in the direction of the voice. She used her pyrokinesis to drill her way deeper into the black mass. She dipped further down, approaching a few captives. There were a few. Some that she was quick to recognize, the first being two familiar faces.  
"Help us," they spoke. Abra couldn't believe her eyes; it was the Grady Twins that she had seen standing in her hallway back at home. But they felt obviously human rather than just taking on the visage of one. The demonic hands were arrayed all over their bodies, binding them tightly. Next was their father – Delbert Grady – the man who cornered them in a hallway to murder them all those years ago. He was also heavily tied down with the hands, his mouth also being covered. And yet, there were others. Nearly hundreds more. All these people were the former residents of the Overlook Hotel. All slain and now part of this personal hell.  
"Where are we?" Abra asked finally.  
"In the deepest, darkest pit of Hell, ma'am," the Grady sisters replied. "When we died, the Overlook took our souls to feed on our Shining for the rest of eternity. It had done the same since it first entered our world and made a deal with the founder to provide it with a steady supply of sacrifices for the winter."  
Abra fought against the bindings fiercely. "Well, wit's time someone ended this!"  
"How?" they asked.  
"Together, obviously." Abra. Abra closed her eyes, thinking heavily. Electricity started to spark around her. Thoughts radiated throughout her mind. Of her friends, her deceased parents. About the power of belief in how good always overcame evil. Her Shining became brighter than anyone else's Shine. The Grady Sisters saw this and looked at each other with some disbelief.  
"At least we should humor her" one of them thought. They slipped their hands through the tight ropes of hands, grabbing each other's hand. The other captives of the Overlook did the same. They firmly closed their eyes to expel the negative thoughts from their minds. A large surge of lightning flared.

Outside, Rose was towering over Scrappy Meg and Snakebite Andi's unconscious body. The black hole was now a raging titan from all the fuel it had devoured. The world remaining was fading away into the black hole. Rose took her hands and charged another large ball.  
"Any last words, brat?"  
Scrappy Meg laid herself over Snakebite Andi's body. "I'll defend her even if I have to fight you to the death!"  
Rose laughed and lifted the ball into the air with her finger. "Taste nightmares!" she screamed. Rose's manic laughter quickly died down as a low murmuring was surging within her. Rose had a panicked expression on her face. Before she could react, her midsection detonates, sending Abra flying out.  
"Abra!" shouted Danny. He floated towards her to give her a ghostly embrace.  
Rose's lower section was bisected and contorting on the ground. Rose growled deeply. Rose picked her upper body up and she struggled forward. A trail of black sludge was accompanying her. "Don't think that this is the end, brat," she choked out, "the black hole is still running smoothly. Even if you kill me, you cannot stop the inevitability!"  
She propelled herself forward like a human catapult. Just then, the ghosts within the Overlook Hotel escaped from Rose's lower body forming a blockade to hold her back. Rose struggled against them. She looked back simultaneously, seeing that she was now getting backed into the black hole. Her eyes were widening, her smirk permanently removed.  
"No! No one can take down the great Rose the Hat like that!"  
Rose was getting sucked into the black hole, stretching and contorting. She yelled at the uncomfortableness. Her very being was being ripped apart at the seams. She struggled harder but the ghosts were putting up a formidable strength. Rose was now up to her arms and head.  
"I am going to take you down with me, Abra, if it's the last thing I'll ever do!"

She took advantage of an opening in the barrier and stretched her arm past the ghosts in the effort of grabbing her foe. Something was blocking her, however. It was the phantom of a middle-aged man with a receding hairline. He had a checkered shirt and coat. In his hands was an ax. The same act that Danny had used when he became possessed by the Overlook. He turned around, glaring hatefully at Rose.  
"Dad?" Danny said surprised.  
Jack smiled at his son and raised his ax in the air. "We don't belong here, witch!"  
He jumps highly, delivering a blow to Rose's head, splitting it open like a ripe watermelon. The blackhole overtakes the two, sucking them and the other spirits of the Overlook inside. The black hole collapsed onto itself, a bright light radiating from it in a bright implosion. The world returned to its normalcy from a final bang of the black hole.  
Snakebite Andi fumbled awake. "Ouch, what happened?" She saw all of the destruction from the previous fighting further confusing her. Scrappy Meg bent down to tightly hug her, forgetting that she was still in a good bit of pain from being flung across the destroyed factory.  
"It's over," Abra sighed before collapsing on the ground from exhaustion.


	10. Reconstruction

Two months went by after the group's final encounter with Rose, and Abra's town slowly began to recover from the onslaught wrought by the brainwashed True Knots. Buildings and homes were demolished after they were beyond the point of reconstruction. Abra had moved in with her grandmother Sandy Reynolds, a woman Jack had a fling with which led to Abra's mother being born. She was sickly, but with some additional help thanks to Abra's Shining powers, she was coming along nicely.  
"It has been two months since the sudden attack of those psychic-powered freaks," announced the anchorman (who replaced the anchorwoman since then), "witnesses have stated that they heard a large explosion outside of our proximity, and with that, the assailants crumbled to dust. Approximately 200 people have been found dead as a result of the attacks. Aside from a few major casualties, some are left unaccounted for."

Abra nodded her head. She knew that the reason as to why the True Knots ceased their attacks was primarily because of Rose's orb shattering in an explosion intended for her and her friends. The moment it was destroyed, the True Knots under her spell disintegrated into dust. She was also freed from the Overlook Hotel's grip. After trying to test it out, she came to the conclusion that the Overlook Hotel was either eradicated when it was sucked into the black hole along with Rose, or it was sealed away, unable to escape most likely for the rest of eternity. She also concluded that Rose herself may also still be alive as well, getting repeatedly stretched and spaghettified, but at the very least the wronged spirits of the Hotel would have their fun terrorizing her for a good long while.

Abra bid her grandmother farewell the next day and entered the school bus. While riding, she saw a young boy in the corner of her eye. He was slipping something out of his bookbag when his pencils fell out and rolled on the floor. He was alone on the bus seat from peeping eyes. He leaned down eyeing all around to see if anyone was watching him. Most of the students were either talking to each other or listening to music. With the coast clear, he took a deep breath and mentally lifted the pencils off the floor and inserted them back into his bag.

Abra's eyes widened. "Another Shiner?"

Danny materialized in the bus seat beside Abra. "Looks like a good friend, doesn't he?"

"Uncle Dan! Stop popping up on me like that!" Abra screamed "I just noticed him, that's all."

Danny laughed. "Just messing with you, Abra." He looked at the boy intensely. "At least it would be good to let him know that he isn't alone."

The school bus arrived at the school without much issue. As Abra exited the vehicle, she saw Snakebite Andi and Scrappy Meg at the entrance. She was pleased to see them, despite both girls being True Knots. They waved at her.  
"What are you guys doing here?" Abra questioned.

"We're just seeing you off," Scrappy Meg explained, "before we head off."

"Where are you going?" Abra asked, her curiosity now maximized.

"Far," Snakebite Andi said plainly. "Before you say anything, we're not looking to stock up on steam."

"Well, what are you going to do now?" Abra said "you need steam to survive."

"Your ghost friend said that he was doing research into the True Knots' backstory and claimed that there could be an alternative" Snakebite Andi answered. She pulled out a stick of gum and inserted it in her mouth and chewed on it. "We should get going now, Scrappy."

They held hands and began to walk away from the school's entrance. Danny hovered there a bit; the students phased through him unknowingly as they entered the school. Danny turned and looked directly at Abra. "Are you sure that you'll be fine while I'm away for maybe months trying to help those two?"

"Of course, Uncle Dan, I'll be fine." Abra had a toothy grin. "You're looking at the girl who singlehandedly took down Rose the Hat."

Danny laughed. "Very well. I'll still be in contact with you." He pointed to his forehead. After hugging Abra, he floated over to Scrappy Meg and Snakebite Andi who were now farther away from the school. Where they were going, they were unsure, but as long as they had each other, they should at the least prevail.

Class began not too long afterward. Their teacher managed to survive the apocalyptic attack and they were now on the topic of allegories in English literature. The subject in question was of a cursed hotel where the characters within slowly go insane. Abra was slightly unnerved by the main theme. It hit too close to home for her.

"So, class," the teacher began straightening her glasses on her bulbous nose, "what do you think the story is really about?"

Multiple hands shot up in the air. "I know, I know! It's about the subjugation of Native Americans because the hotel was built on an Indian burial ground!" one student with matching pigtails said.  
"No! It's about the Nazis!" exclaimed another student.

"You're both wrong! I saw the film and I believe that it's about the Moon landing being fake!"

"Wallace, you always claim the Moon landing was faked!" A female student pointed out.

The class began to argue with each other over the plausible meaning of the story. Abra rolled her eyes annoyed by the endless conjecture. "Or maybe it's just a story about a damn haunted hotel and nothing more than that."  
She glared at her other classmates with boredom. She saw the boy from earlier. He was also detached from the school assignment. He had a pair of headphones on his head, with one of the earmuffs on his ear. He was listening to music on his phone. Danny's words were on an automatic replay in her mind. After everything was said and done, there were potentially more children much like her. They may also not be comfortable with admitting that they had powers. Whatever the case, Abra would take Danny up on his suggestion, deciding to better know the boy when school ended.


End file.
